Curried Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

This is SO cheap if you just use water instead of the chicken stock I used. Maybe, what, $1.75?

But so delicious. Tastes like dessert, but it's dinner, and good for ya. Oh, and 125 calories a bowl! Adapted from Eating Clean's version, which I upped the curry on and doubled the apple factor.

The night before (or the hour before):

Take one medium or two small butternut squashes, slit in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds and pulp out. Put 'em face-down on a tin-foil-lined cookie sheet. Roast 'em at 400 degrees for about 30-40 minutes, until it's REALLY fork-tender at the thickest part of the part closest to the stem (not the hollowed out end, which cooks faster).

When roasted sufficiently, remove from oven and cool. When it's cooled, scoop all the squash meat out into a bowl, as much as you can, right down to the skin! Either cool it in Tupperware overnight in the fridge, or get cracking on the soup when you're ready.

When making the soup:

1 onion

Chop it up good (but no fussing; it's getting pureed later. Just a decent dice).

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil (yes, use it all, you need it for the spices in a minute). Saute the onions for about 7-10 minutes over medium heat until it starts to turn colour a little.

Add:
4 teaspoons curry (for a medium kick, 2 teaspoons was the original recipe)
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix and cook until fragrant (which means cinnamon-curry wafts up to you).

While the onions are cooking, peel, core, and chop up:

2 small apples -- I used Fuji, which was nice, but I bet Granny Smith would be great

When the onions and curry mix have become fragrant, add to it:

5 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water
chopped apples
reserved butternut squash

So, mix the stock, apples, and squash up well with the onions, making sure all the spices are scraped free of the bottom of the pot, where they like to stick. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until apple in tender and your house smells kick-ass tasty!

Puree the soup when it's a temperature you're comfortable working with. Serve hot, but first taste it and add salt and pepper as required.

Secret to pureeing hot: taking the lid's centre cap/button out, covering it with a wet dishcloth you hold in place, then ratcheting up through the lowest blender speeds with a jar no more than half-full with hot/warm ingredients and that does not mean you can put cold shit in the other half of the jar up top.

Puree hot at your own damn risk. :)